Quick Reference

Features

Fast and Minimalist

Textadept’s user interface is sleek and simple. Relentlessly
optimized for speed and minimalism over the years, the editor
consists of less than 2000 lines of C code and less than 4000 lines
of Lua code.

Cross Platform

Textadept runs on Windows, Mac OSX, Linux, and BSD. It also has a
terminal version, which is ideal for work on remote machines.

Remarkably Extensible

Textadept is an ideal editor for programmers who want endless
extensibility without sacrificing speed or succumbing to code bloat
and featuritis. The editor gives you complete control over the
entire application using the Lua programming language. Everything
from moving the caret to changing menus and key commands on-the-fly
to handling core events is possible. Its potential is vast.

Multiple Language Support

Being a programmer’s editor, Textadept excels at editing
source code. It understands the syntax and structure of more than
100 different programming languages and recognizes hundreds of file
types. Textadept uses this knowledge to make viewing and editing
code faster and easier. It can also compile and run simple source
files.

Unlimited Split Views

Both the graphical version and the terminal version of Textadept
support unlimited vertical and horizontal view splitting, even of
the same file.

Customizable Themes

Textadept uses themes to customize its look and feel. It comes with
built-in light, dark, and terminal themes.

Code Autocompletion

Not only can Textadept autocomplete words in files, but it can also
autocomplete symbols for programming languages and display API
documentation.

Keyboard Driven

Textadept is entirely keyboard driven. The editor defines key
bindings for nearly every action. You can easily reassign existing
bindings or create new ones. Keys may be chained together or grouped
into language-specific keys or key modes.

Self Contained

Textadept’s binary packages are self-contained and need not be
installed. No administrator privilages are required either.

Learn More

Comprehensive Manual

Textadept comes with a comprehensive user manual in the
application’s doc/ directory. This manual is also
available online. It covers all of
Textadept’s main features, including installation, usage,
configuration, theming, scripting, and compilation.

Exhaustive API Documentation

Since Textadept is entirely scriptable with Lua, its API is heavily
documented. This documentation is also located in doc/, is
available online, and is the ultimate
resource on scripting Textadept. (The editor’s Lua internals
also provide abundant scripting examples.)

Quick Reference

This reference contains a wealth of knowledge on how to script and
configure Textadept using Lua. It groups the editor’s rich API
into a series of tasks in a convenient and easy-to-use manner. It
serves as the perfect complement to Textadept’s Manual and API
documentation.

Try It Yourself

Learn even more about Textadept by downloading and trying it out
yourself. If you’re not completely satisfied, contact us on
the mailing list or e-mail me
personally (mitchell.att.foicica.com). You may also fork the
project, submit patches, or sponsor a
feature. Textadept is 100% open source.

Still Not Convinced?

Textadept has a proven track record,
with at least one release every 2 months for 6+ years and no signs
of inactivity. Also, as an open-source project, the editor will
never fade away.

Textadept is a real cross-platform desktop application, backed by a
world-class editing engine that
dozens
of editors and IDEs have depended on for
over 15
years.

Textadept is scriptable in a language that was
carefully
designed to run on any platform at high speed and with a
minimal memory footprint. Lua is used everywhere from video games to embedded devices. It is easy to
learn too!

Textadept is very resource efficient, consuming merely 15MB of RAM
at startup and hardly any CPU while under load. Even with over 20 of
its own source files open at once, Textadept does not exceed 20MB of
RAM usage and has no input lag at all.

Textadept does not rely on external packages to provide its
functionality and does not depend on a package ecosystem to thrive.
The editor gives you plenty of the tools you need out of the box.

Textadept has sensible defaults and does not expect you to spend
hours customizing it before you can start being productive.

With fewer than 30 main source files comprising less than 6000 lines
of heavily documented code, Textadept’s internals are
remarkably easy to read, understand, keep track of, and extend to
your liking.

Did you see that there is a terminal version in case you need to do
work on a remote server?

Textadept does not track you. It does not attempt to connect to the
internet – it is just a text editor.